"Well said, mother! You struck the nail right on the head! Hey, Pavel?"
And with a wink to the mother, he said with a jovial gleam in his eyes:
"You can't drain the blue blood out of a person even with a pump!"
Pavel remarked dryly:
"She is a good woman!" His face glowered.
"And that's true, too!" the Little Russian corroborated. "Only she
does not understand that she ought to----"
They started up an argument about something the mother did not
understand. The mother noticed, also, that Sashenka was most stern
with Pavel, and that sometimes she even scolded him. Pavel smiled,
was silent, and looked in the girl's face with that soft look he
had formerly given Natasha. This likewise displeased the mother.
The gatherings increased in number, and began to be held twice a
week; and when the mother observed with what avidity the young
people listened to the speeches of her son and the Little Russian,
to the interesting stories of Sashenka, Natasha, Alexey Ivanovich,
and the other people from the city, she forgot her fears and shook
her head sadly as she recalled the days of her youth.
Sometimes they sang songs, the simple, familiar melodies, aloud and
merrily.
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